Philip Maddocks: Struggling U.S. lays off a dozen states and hundreds of counties

Friday

Apr 29, 2011 at 12:01 AMApr 29, 2011 at 1:46 AM

Saying it needs to streamline the way it does business in order to stay competitive with other emerging economies in the world, the U.S. announced this week that it will go ahead with plans to lay off a dozen states, scores of elected officials, and hundreds of counties, townships, cities and towns as part of a restructuring strategy aimed at trimming costs and making its far-flung operation more efficient and well run.

Philip Maddocks

Saying it needs to streamline the way it does business in order to stay competitive with other emerging economies in the world, the U.S. announced this week that it will go ahead with plans to lay off a dozen states, scores of elected officials, and hundreds of counties, townships, cities and towns as part of a restructuring strategy aimed at trimming costs and making its far-flung operation more efficient and well run.

“Even a small decrease in its landmass and citizen force could add significantly to the country’s competitiveness in the global market,” said. Guy L. Barbary, the chief fixed-income strategist for Global, Spherical, and Tetrahedron. “It is just a question of how much.”

“The country indicated earlier this year that it would be resizing itself in response to market conditions and as part of our ongoing re-engineering efforts,” a national spokesman said on Wednesday. “This is not something we are happy about doing, but it is a necessary step to insure the nation’s survival and to meet our responsibility to our shareholders.”

The U.S.’ layoffs — which include most of California except Silicon Valley and Hollywood, much of Alabama, Mississippi, North Dakota, South Dakota, and parts of the Great Lakes — are the latest indication of how badly the nation has been damaged by deficit gridlock in Washington as it resizes its population and property holdings in anticipation of a greater log jam in the years to come. Washington’s legislation machinery has ground to a halt, and politicians acknowledge that the deal business is extremely slow between Democrats and Republicans.

The latest announcement by the country comes on the heels of Standard & Poor’s decision to lower its outlook on the United States rating to negative. Although the agency did not actually lower its highest AAA rating on the country’s debt, the nation’s spokesman said the U.S. “could read the writing on the wall.”

In an e-mail message to citizens and states on Monday, the nation said it would be able to lay off states and municipalities that did not fit its strategy, and that it would continue to do so. The U.S.’ underlying business remains strong and revenues have been stable, the country said.

“We are going to spend the next year ‘getting fit,’ more streamlined, and put ourselves in a strong competitive position to take advantage of future opportunities,” the country wrote.

“The coming year could be a difficult one for our states and citizens,” it said. “The country needs you to maintain your focus on helping it succeed because now is the time when lasting loyalty is earned. And in return you can have confidence that the country and its leadership team will stay focused on strengthening what and whom it decides not to lay off while positioning all of us to benefit when conditions inevitably improve.”

The U.S. has been struggling to regain its grip on the world it has dominated for well over a century. Once far and away the most valuable country in the world, America’s worth is withering along with its share price, which sank again with news that the S. & P. had lowered its outlook on the United States’ rating to something other than stable for the first time since the S. & P. started assigning outlooks in 1989.

“There is no question we have our work cut out for us,” said the country’s spokesman.

He said the U.S. would spend the next year consolidating what he called redundancies, such as having both a North and South Carolina on the nation’s payroll. But the big push, he said, would be to get more production out of a pared-down population.

“Times have changed,” he said, “and this country has to learn it just can’t afford to keep 300 million people on its payroll anymore.”

Philip Maddocks can be reached at pmaddocks@wickedlocal.com.

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